On May 29, 1967, two University of Hawaii scientists studied magnetic tapes and hydrophone soundings of an underwater volcanic eruption in the Austral Islands in the South Pacific.

Fourteen months later, one of them located the only known active submarine volcano, rising from a deep ocean floor anyplace in the world.

Dr. Rockne H. Johnson, associate geophysicist at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics, made the discovery July 20 — the same day the first earthmen landed on the moon.

He described the location as 750 nautical miles (863.25 statute miles) southeast of Tahiti.

Johnson and his associate, Roger A. Norris, came within 18 miles of determining the exact location from their 1967 calculations.

Johnson and his wife and four children returned home two weeks ago from their South Pacific exploration.

They left the Ala Wai Boat Harbor on their 40-foot yawl Havaiki July 27, 1968.

Johnson said the new volcano lies in a straight line with Neilson Reef, the island of Rapa and Morotiri.

It rises 10,000 feet above the sea floor but remains 1,500 feet below the surface of the ocean, he said.

The volcano has a crater eight-tenths of a mile across.

Johnson has suggested that the submarine volcano be named after Dr. Gordon Macdonald, University senior professor of geology. …

…He said the discovery of the new volcano was made possible because of data furnished by the Pacific Missile Range, which furnished the magnetic tapes and soundings.